New Immune Theory

[Ian A. York]

In article <3mgm2n$n33 at lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk> mrc7 at cus.cam.ac.uk (Dr M.R. Clark) writes:

>One of the big problems with vaccine development is in fact the difficulty
>in getting an immune response to the chosen antigens. In experimental
>systems in animals it is commonplace to generate immune responses by using
>adjuvants etc. These are likely to cause damage and attract the innate
>immune system and hence get the ball rolling. In general immune responses

Right, which is why I brought up the point of the DNA vaccine efforts.  
You will recall that a CTL response has been induced to DNA in liposomes, 
injected intravenously, with promoters specific for distal tissues 
(sorry, I don't have the reference handy and my Medline link is down; the 
paper was in Science or Nature about a year or so ago, and was a few 
months after the Ulmer paper in Science that showed that injected DNA 
could induce a CTL response.)  It's very difficult to believe that this 
situation is inducing appreciable tissue damage - or if it is, then the 
concept of "tissue damage" has to be extended to include normal wear and 
tear and so is meaningless.  
	
Ian
-- 
Ian York   (york at mbcrr.harvard.edu)
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston MA 02115
Phone (617)-632-3921     Fax  (617)-632-2627